9 Things to Know About Tisha B’Av

What’s the saddest day on the Jewish calendar? It’s Tisha B’Av, and this year, it begins at sunset on Saturday, July 17 and ends at sundown on July 18. Tisha B’Av is an important Jewish holiday. Here are nine things to know about Tisha B’Av.

1.Tisha B’Av means the ninth of Av. Av is the name of a summer month on the Hebrew calendar, and the ninth day falls either in July or August.

2.Tisha B’Av is the most sorrowful day of the Jewish year because it commemorates a surprising number of tragedies that have happened to the Jewish people on this very same date throughout history. Most importantly, both the first and second Temples were destroyed on the ninth of Av hundreds of years apart.

3.Other tragedies that came upon the Jewish people throughout history on the ninth of Av include:

• In 135 C.E., the Bar Kochba Revolt was quashed and hundreds of thousands of Jewish people were killed. After the Revolt, the Roman Emperor Hadrian changed Judea’s name to Syria Palestina after Israel’s long-time enemy, the Philistines
• In 136 C.E., Hadrian leveled what remained of the Temple in Jerusalem, leaving only what we know today as the Temple Mount
• In 1096 C.E., the first Crusade officially began. Thousands of Jewish people were killed or persecuted during these campaigns attempting to force them to convert to “Christianity”

4. Tisha B’Av is preceded by three weeks of mourning, beginning on the 17th of Tammuz, marking the day that the Romans breached Jerusalem’s walls in 69 C.E. The event led to the Temple’s destruction in 70 A.D. Mourning intensifies on Av 1 through the 9th.